Su An had a very powerful ability: as long as someone's wish was strong enough, and the wish-power he gained from fulfilling it was great enough, then there was almost nothing he couldn't do.
The strength of another person's wish determined the limit of how much he could interfere.
Of course, that was not always true.
Rules existed to regulate transactions.
And for some people, what he offered was never a transaction at all.
For example...
In the year 1082, at the Saluzzo family estate in Siracusa.
"Siracusa... it's raining again."
Su An could no longer remember how many times he had sighed the same thing.
The rain passed straight through his transparent body and fell to the ground. He lowered his head and glanced at his hand. He could see its outline, but he could not catch a single drop of rain.
"How has Siracusa not drowned in a flood yet—"
He shouted freely into the air.
No one answered. He was used to it by now. He had been stranded here for who knew how long; time meant nothing to a ghost.
Drifting down in utter boredom, Su An prepared to carry out his daily task: see whether anyone could notice him, then clock out for the day.
Until he saw her.
Lappland Saluzzo.
She stood in the rain in the back courtyard, while her father remained beneath the eaves.
Alberto held a rabbit by the neck. He tossed it at Lappland's feet.
"In a few days, it will be your tenth birthday banquet, Lappland."
He paused, looking down at the rabbit.
"Formal instruction begins tomorrow. I do not want you dying at your birthday banquet over something so useless."
Little Lappland did not cry.
She lowered her head, looked into the rabbit's eyes, and answered, "...I understand."
Alberto nodded in satisfaction, then turned and walked back inside. The door shut behind him, leaving the rain and his daughter outside together.
Su An recognized the rabbit.
He had drifted around here for so long that, every now and then, he would see the girl lift the rabbit high into the air, let its ears brush against her cheek, then mutter something softly to it.
Su An floated closer and sighed.
"Wow... a crooked-neck bunny. Cute~"
He had not expected anyone to hear him. No one here had ever been able to see him.
After all, Lappland had not lifted her head even once. Her gaze remained fixed on the rabbit's corpse.
Su An circled around her again and again.
The rabbit really was pretty cute.
Fluffy, snowy white, and now with its neck twisted like that, it looked almost like a doll.
He had meant to be serious, honestly.
He knew what this scene meant. This little girl had just been given a lesson from her father—one called This Is Your Birthday Present.
But he had been a ghost for too long.
So long that sorrow could no longer pierce him. So long that the only way he knew to cope was to find himself something—anything—to do.
Besides, she couldn't see him anyway.
Besides, he wasn't going to do anything.
Su An cleared his throat and started circling around Lappland and the dead rabbit while singing:
"Little bunny, be good—"
"One ear bent aside~"
"Twist the head, kick the feet—"
"Blood splashes on the windowsill."
He stopped spinning, lowered his head to look at the rabbit with its crooked neck, then turned and circled the other way.
"Little bunny, be good—"
"Won't even raise your eyes."
"No matter who comes, you won't look up—"
"No matter who comes, they deserve what they get~"
When he finished singing, he stood still and looked down at the rabbit in silence for a few seconds.
"...The only sin you committed in this life was being too gentle," he said softly. "In your next life, be a wolf."
Then he lifted his head—
—and met a pair of eyes staring straight at him.
Su An's whole body jolted.
This is bad.
Those two words exploded inside his head.
When did she look over? How long has she been watching? Did she hear what I was singing just now? No, that's impossible, how could she hear me? No, how could she even see me? No—why—why—why did she see me and not say anything?!
"You... can see me?" Su An asked uncertainly.
The girl did not answer. She only kept looking at him.
Su An tried to move, but her gaze stayed locked onto him. He felt like crying.
Don't do this. Say something already. This is terrifying.
Seeing a ghost and reacting like this—were you even normal?
"...You look decent enough."
That was the first thought that came into Lappland's mind.
The second was: Much better-looking than my father.
The third was: But dumber than him.
After all, no normal ghost would float around someone else's backyard singing to a dead rabbit.
But then another question surfaced.
Am I losing my mind?
She had seen dead people. She had seen injured animals. She had seen rabbits with their necks snapped. But she had never seen a transparent person who could sing.
That transparent person was trying to shift positions, and Lappland's gaze followed him instinctively, confirming his existence.
Not a hallucination.
A hallucination probably would not be this... stupid.
Lappland kept staring at him without moving.
She thought: If I really have gone mad, then mad me has pretty good taste. At least this thing I hallucinated looks better than anyone else I've ever seen.
Then little Lappland finally spoke.
"What are you?"
This is bad. She really can see me. Her first impression of me must be a total disaster.
Su An tried to salvage his image. He straightened out his awkward floating posture as much as he could, curved his eyes into what he hoped was a trustworthy smile, and said:
"I am... a god born from your wish~"
"Hehe~"
The moment the words left his mouth, he gagged internally, then shut his eyes in utter despair.
You were a ghost of unknown age, trying to act cute in front of a ten-year-old girl.
Amazing. Really impressive, Su An.
Little Lappland continued to look at him. There was none of the reaction a ten-year-old child ought to have when faced with a god.
"I don't have any wishes."
Su An fell silent.
He looked again at the rabbit: white fur, twisted neck, that tiny body gradually going cold.
This little girl had not shed a single tear.
Not because she was holding them back. There had been no tears in her eyes at all. It was as though her tear ducts had been severed cleanly at the same moment her father twisted the rabbit's neck.
"...Then you can have one now."
Little Lappland lowered her head and thought for a long, long time.
Then she raised her eyes.
"Can you bring it back to life?"
"Ah—haha, of course..." Su An thought for a second. "...I can't."
Damn it! What had he even been considering just now? He had worked so hard to save up this wish-power. How could he waste it like that?
Of course he could do it. He could interfere with reality, overturn death, even reach along the timeline and drag a soul back out of the River of the Dead—so long as the price could be paid.
That price was the wish-power gained from completing a wish.
But the amount of wish-power this little girl would generate from wanting the rabbit revived was pitifully small.
Wouldn't he be taking a loss?
Little Lappland did not press him for an explanation. Nor did she look disappointed. She did not even look away.
She only nodded, as if confirming something she had already known all along.
He really was just a figment of her imagination.
Su An looked at her and asked softly, "Do you really want it to come back to life that badly?"
Little Lappland did not answer right away.
She looked down at the rabbit. A long time passed—so long that Su An thought she would never reply.
"...No."
"I just wanted to know whether you could."
What the hell?! How can you do that? I was seriously considering it just now!
"Then what can you do?" little Lappland asked.
Su An froze.
Truthfully, he had never really thought about that question.
He had drifted around for so many years. Most of the time he was just trying his luck. On the rare occasions someone could see him, it was always to fulfill some tiny little request—Stop hovering beside my bed,Stop singing that stupid song,Help me check whether my son's back from school yet—in exchange for a scrap of wish-power. Then he would go back to drifting again.
What could he do?
It seemed no one had ever asked him that before.
"I can talk."
Little Lappland blinked. She showed neither disappointment nor expectation.
Su An started to panic.
What was this? Where was the mission? Give me a mission already!
"Not ordinary talking, I mean... I can keep you company. I can talk with you."
He pointed at the rabbit.
"Back when you used to hold it in the sun, didn't you talk to it too?"
Little Lappland's gaze shifted ever so slightly.
Su An's heart leapt.
There's a chance!
"Now it's gone."
"I can fill that place."
Silence stretched between them for a few seconds.
Suddenly Su An felt that what he had just offered sounded a little stupid.
Who was he, anyway? A ghost who had drifted around for who knew how many years. No body, no warmth, unable even to block the rain.
Why would she want something she couldn't see or touch to keep her company?
He was just about to laugh it off and change the subject when little Lappland spoke.
"Then can you stay with me?"
"...That, I can do. Simple, convenient, easy to fulfill."
Little Lappland looked at him, her eyes still as unreadable as before.
Su An, on the other hand, felt a surge of happiness.
"Oh yeah. A brand-new daily quest."
Only then did he realize, belatedly, that this might have been the first time in all his long drifting existence that someone had needed him.
"Then I'll stay with you from now on."
When Su An said those words, he had no idea—
—that several years later, this little girl, who at present did not even know how to make a wish, would look at him and demand something as outrageous as:
I want your body.
But that was a story for later.
Lappland did not respond. She only bent down and picked up the rabbit with the crooked neck from the ground.
Cradling it in her arms, she glanced up at Su An once, then turned and walked deeper into the estate along the corridor.
Su An stayed where he was for a moment, watching the figure carrying the rabbit slowly recede into the distance.
It suddenly felt as though he had agreed to something very important.
But he still could not put it into words. He simply drifted after her.
Then he cleared his throat.
"Hey, what was your name again—"
"...Lappland."
"Lappland, huh. That name suits a wolf."
"...Why?"
How should I know? Ask your biological father. But a client is a client—gotta provide some emotional value.
"Lappland Saluzzo. It sounds really cool when you say it. You'll look even cooler when you're holding a sword someday."
There was no answer.
Damn... kids really are hard to deal with.
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